EB.: How was Malagüero created, how did you joined, how did you meet each other? M.: The founders of Malagüero are Patxi Navarro (the player of the wind instruments) and me, Toni Peña (acustic guitar and percussion). We are friends from the childness and we have always had a lot of common interests, one of them, music. So one day, with the only purpose of creating, we started to make some noise that did not sound absolutely bad… Some time after, Lucas Albadalejo (keyboards) joined us, and then, the other members arrived too, until our current formation. E.B.: Why did you call your group "Malagüero"?

M.: We searched for a different name, with rhythm and attractive. A song by Silvio Rodríguez in his CD "Domínguez", the song "Me quieren" suggested us "birsd of bad omen", we liked it and, ea! we left it that way.

E.B.: Which musical training do the members of Malagüero have?

M..As you can imagine, very variated. Some of the come from the coservatory, some others from jazz, from garaje, even from dancing orquestras… generally speaking we all have some training, but we love heterogeneity and our musical tastes are unlimited, so, sometimes, they are opossited.

E.B.: What do you mean with that opossition?

M.: Sometimes that mixture of so different influences difficulties a lot the way to put those stiles together. But it is very enjoyable trying to open that musical no way out path.

E.B.: In which other musica projects are you or have you been working?

M.: In orquestras, jazz bands, and some of us play in an acustic quartet of celt music.

E.B.: What´s its name? Have you ever released anything with that quartet?

M.: The quartet is called Patrick´s Quartet. The true is that it is a mere entertainment that helps us to grow as musicians and economically too. We have not thought about releasing anything, but time will say. 

E.B.: How did your professional relationship with Sonifolk, the label that has released your CD "Latitudes" startet? 

M.: When we thought about recording an album we prepared a demo record, we sent it to a lot of labels, Sonifolk was the one who made us the best offer. And it is one of the most prestigious independent labels. The relationship is, generally speaking, quite near. 

E.B.: "Latitudes" is a very heterogenic work, with a lot of different musical influences and traditions included. How did you choose the songs for the CD? Have you made any musical investigation about the musical traditions of the part of Spain where you come from, or, in despite, are songs like "El pastor" or "Canción de Cuna" popular and known there?

M.: It was not difficult, as most of us agreed on the songs that we preferred. We were searching for scores. A professor at University of Murcia gave us some of the ones that could be succesful and we started to work over them. We used to make big changes in the tradicional songs. New lyrics, changes of the harmony, of measure,… until we make our own song, that the original author could not recognize. Anyway, most of the songs are composed by us. 

E.B.: At this moment, do you manage to earn your living by the music?

M.: Some of us live by music, but thanks to some other projects. In example, me, Toni, work at Algarabía Producciones, a concerts promotor company. 

Malagüero en concierto, en Suristán (Madrid), Octubre 2001.

E.B.: Yolanda, at concert you are one of the most powerful and full of personality singers I have ever heard. When did you start to sing? Have you had any training about voice and vocal technics? Have you worked with any other group or artists? Have you received any invitation to join any other musical project? Since "Latitudes" was recorded and I saw you in concert, with eight months of difference, your way of singing seems quite different, I would say, it has become much better. Which training have you done during this time?  M.: I have always enjoyed singing, but I have never had an specific training. It was after joining Malagüero when I started to receive singing training. From two years I have had a teacher who is been a great help for me. Now I learning musical theory and accordion. I started to sing in a group making covers of Led Zeppelin, Janis Joplin… now I only work with Malagüero, but I am preparing a little project about musics like fado. The best training I have had since we recorded "Latitudes" has been the scenary, that makes us feel more secure.

E.B.: Which has been your contact with the different musical traditions that you have included in "Latitudes"? 

M.: Afortunatelly, Cartagena and Murcia are two cities where a lot of civilitations has stablished, and that sign is already there, waiting. We just had to clean the dust and adapt it to our taste. There are hundreds of folk and ethnic music at this part of Spain, you have to listen and watch with the eyes wide open and wihout prejudices, that´s all. Our music flows out with not previous planification, some days it is mediterranean, some others flamenco, Central Europe, some days nothing appears, some other days we would kill each other! We find it very boring to make a predetermined style. "Latitudes" shows all these questiones.

M.: At this moment the group needs a pseudo-hollydays. We are composing and we will start to work for the next album soon. But I think we won´t get into the studio until autum ("Latitudes" still has a long life to spend). At spring we will start a tour that might last until autum. And about performing abroad, Sonifolk has good contacts in Germany, so we might play there at Spring or Summer.